About

The Projects: Takunda and Titukulane

Topic Details
Core Themes Care groups, nutritional cash transfer, dietary diversity, and food security
Geography Malawi (Titukulane) and Zimbabwe (Takunda)
Program Objectives objective 1 objective 2
Research question During FY 24, in both the Takunda and Titukulane programs, is there a relationship between the gendered structure of the household and child feeding and nutrition practice knowledge? What factors confound that relationship?
Background Food security remains one of the most pressing issues of our time. This project seeks to analyze the ways program interventions, internal behaviors, and demographics may impact measures of food security.
Project Status This project was completed as a part of both the epidemiology and the data science certificate capstone courses (EPI 598C and DATA 555 respectively). Launching of this interactive dashboard and github repository satisfied the requirements for the completion of the Rollins School of Public Health Data Science certificate.
Updates will not continue after final submission on April 25th.

Methodology

Column

Demographic Distributions

Study Population Descriptive Statistics by Program

Population includes all participants asked feeding practice knowledge questions

TAKUNDA
(N=158)
TITUKULANE
(N=227)
Overall
(N=385)
Gendered Structure of the Household
Adult Female no Adult Male (FnM) 11 (7.0%) 55 (24.2%) 66 (17.1%)
Adult Male and Adult Female (M&F) 147 (93.0%) 172 (75.8%) 319 (82.9%)
Age
Median [Min, Max] 34.0 [16.0, 72.0] 30.0 [18.0, 50.0] 31.0 [16.0, 72.0]
Sex
Female 158 (100%) 226 (99.6%) 384 (99.7%)
Male 0 (0%) 1 (0.4%) 1 (0.3%)
Interventions Participated In
Median [Min, Max] 2.00 [1.00, 10.0] 14.0 [1.00, 18.0] 9.00 [1.00, 18.0]
Feeding Practices Known
Median [Min, Max] 3.00 [0, 7.00] 0 [0, 7.00] 0 [0, 7.00]
Feeding Practices Known (binary)
Zero (0) 8 (5.1%) 193 (85.0%) 201 (52.2%)
One or more (1+) 150 (94.9%) 34 (15.0%) 184 (47.8%)

Variables Explained

Understanding the Variables

Gendered Structure of the Household (GSoH)
1=Adult Male no Adult Female (MnF)
2=Adult Female no Adult Male (FnM)
3=Adult Male and Adult Female (M&F)
4=Female Child no Adults (CNAF)
5=Male Child no Adults (CNAM)
* Note: 3, 4, and 5 were removed from analyses due to small sample size

Age

Sex

Intervention participation Total number of interventions participated in by each participant

Click to explore interventions by program

Takunda

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

  • 4

  • 5

  • 6

Titukulane

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

  • 4

  • 5

  • 6

Feeding Practices Known Participants were asked during the PaBS survey what child feeding practices they were aware of. This question evaluated knowledge not practice.

Participants in both programs were evaluated in knowing 0 to 7 practices.

Click below to learn what practice were examined for each program

Takunda

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

  • 4

  • 5

  • 6

Titukulane

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

  • 4

  • 5

  • 6

Feeding Practices Known (binary)

Given that the programs did not evaluation identical practices, practices known was transformed into a binary variable. Participants were identified as knowing either zero practices or one or more practices.

Column

Takunda Participants

158

Titukulane Participants

227

Adult Female no Adult Male Households

66

Adult Male and Adult Female Households

319

Participants know 1 or more feeding practices

184

Interactive Visualizations

Barplot
Gendered Structure of the Household and Feeding Practices Known

Boxplot
Feeding Practices Known and Gendered Household Structure


Key Takeaways:

This graph provides a view of the distribution of feeding practices known, separated by gendered household type. When viewing this widget (with zero’s INCLUDED), we see that across both household types, participants are significantly more likely to know zero (0) feeding practices than one or more. Overall, both household types have similar distributions of feeding practices known, and the coloring of the dots shows that program may be a stronger driver of knowledge than gendered household type. It does lead to the belief that those in the Titukulane program on average know fewer feeding practices, while those in Takunda know significantly more.

Barchart
Gendered Household Structure, Program and Knowledge


Key Takeaways:

This barchart shows feeding practices known as a binary variable with participants either knowing 0 practices or 1 or more practices. Without the noise of gendered household type, this graph clearly shows that Takunda participants are more likely to know 1 or more feeding practices.

Scatterplot
Relationship between Interventions and Knowledge


Key Takeaways:

This graph shows that interventions participated in has a slightly positive relationship with feeding practices known. Titukulane participants have a wider range of total interventions participated in (1 to 18), while Takunda participants participated in 1 to 10 interventions.

See the Data

This interactive data table allows stakeholders to view and sort through the cleaned and mapped dataset. These programs have never been analyzed together (to date), as a result being able to easily view the new variables will aid in the applications of the research.